In the latter half of the twentieth century, there began a phenomenon known as the information revolution. While the information revolution is a historical development broader in scope than any one event or machine, no single device has come to represent the information revolution more than the digital electronic computer. The development of computer systems has surely been a revolution. Each year, computer systems grow faster, store more data, and provide more applications to their users.
The declining prices and expanding capabilities of modem digital technology has caused it to be used in an ever increasing variety of applications. One of these applications has been the capturing of optical images electronically. Optical imaging technology generally uses a digital sensor array, such as a charge-coupled device (CCD) array, having a large number of photo-sensitive elements arranged in a regular pattern, and appropriate supporting hardware which scans the output of the elements and constructs therefrom a digital image. The digital image can then be stored in any digital data storage medium, displayed on a digital display device, printed on paper or other medium, manipulated using editing tools, or transmitted to remote locations using any transmission medium appropriate for digital data.
Optical imaging has been used in a variety of settings, including fax machines, document scanners, bar code readers, and so forth. In particular, electronic optical imaging is also used as a substitute for older film-based media in high-resolution still and motion picture cameras. Indeed, as electronic optical technology improves in quality and declines in price, many foresee the day when it will completely supplant the older film-based media in these fields.
A typical electronic camera, whether used for still or motion video, has an on-board digital data processor and is in effect a small, special purpose computer. These cameras are therefore often referred to as “digital” camera, and will be so referred to herein, although in fact data may sometimes be sensed, stored, or temporarily held or transmitted in an analog electronic mode. The optical sensor array used for capturing images can be used for either still or motion video images, provided that appropriate supporting hardware, programming and recording media is available. This fact has been used to advantage in various commercially available video cameras, which also have the optional capability to capture still images. Since a still image is normally saved in a different format than a motion video image, these cameras typically offer the user the option of a motion video or a still video mode. The common optical sensor array is used to capture the image in either case, but the captured image may be saved differently, depending on the operational mode.
Most digital cameras to date make limited use of digital technologies beyond straightforward optical scanning and recording. Such an approach fails to recognize the vast potential of the information age to provide improved integration of digital technology and enhanced function of digital cameras not yet conceived, a potential which is bounded only by human imagination. In particular, it fails to recognize the potential to obtain relatively high-resolution still images while recording in a relatively low-resolution motion video mode.